During our Trans Karoo trip in July 2015, we visited Van Wyk’s Vlei in the central karoo. This little scene with the donkey cart, salt bush and sleeping dog, just needed to be painted ! I decided to paint it for an upcoming exhibition in Burgersdorp in October. So I am using it as the advertisement for the exhibition, on Facebook and elsewhere. Here it is as the Poster. The text has been added digitally, and does not actually appear on the painting, that will be on display at the October Show. Please come and visit if you are in the neighbourhood, in October.
Exhibition poster for October 2016, in Burgersdorp.
We have just spent 2 days (14 & 15 October) at the Burgersdorp Somerfees. It was the culmination of weeks of painting, framing, card making and endless packing & preparation. John had framed 24 new pictures, and big folders of unframed paintings featured more prominently at this exhibition that ever before.
Our stall, Burgersdorp Somerfees.2011
We arrived early on Friday morning, at 6.30 am and spent most of the morning erecting the stands and planning where to hang all the paintings. But the wind was a constant nuisance and by the end of Friday we thought it had all been a big mistake! Our first day was nothing short of disastrous and the very strong north-westerly wind blew all the cards and anything that was not tied down. We were also told that our north-facing tent structure had blown over on Thursday night! So we requested some extra ropes and tent pegs to try and secure it more firmly but with every gust of wind the whole roof ballooned; the structure shuddered & shook; and all our paintings rattled precariously on their stands. By the end of the day, with thunder and lightening looming and the wind gusting continually into our stall, we decided to pack up all 65 paintings again, and bring them home for safety-sake! I had taken photos of the arrangement of the paintings on Friday, which made it a simpler process, early on Saturday morning to remember the position of each one, as we re-hung them again. Saturday morning was a beautiful sunny and mostly windless day, so we could confidently pack out all the cards and calendars into the card-stands and lay out the folders of unframed paintings on the big table; along with the smaller items like gift tags and bookmarks.
The east end of the tent and the revolving card stand.
Saturday also brought many more people enjoying a day out at the festival, and lots of familiar friends & visitors to our stall. With the state of the economy we did not expect to sell much, but felt that the exposure was important. Many of the local folk had never seen our painting display before.
west end of the stall
Ultimately, we were really fortunate to sell a couple of paintings along with several cards and calendars.
A small vase of the first fragrant roses of my spring garden to brighten the display.
How wonderful it was to see so many old friends that we have known for years, and to meet many new visitors to the festival who had come from neighbouring districts. Their warm-hearted friendliness & enthusiasm certainly has made it worthwhile in the end. I am even hopeful that there may be a few orders to follow, and those are always a welcome bonus!!
The Exhibition in Port Elizabeth was our first in almost 2 years. It was a mere 3 days but the Lord blessed us with a successful show, and a trouble-free trip to PE and back with our overloaded old trailer. Also we have so many family and friends, new and old, to be thankful to for making it a wonderful weekend. Our son, John, also came from Johannesburg, to help us with the Exhibition. As we hadn’t Exhibited in PE since March 2006, it was wonderful to have so many of our old friends and patrons coming to visit us.
For those who haven’t seen our Exhibitions before, you may like to see the set of photos that we took, and for those that were there, thank you for making it so memorable!
John drawing. PE,Walmer Park Exhibition ’09Card stand and tables. PE,Walmer Park Exhibition4 corner rooms & 4 entrances made up the exhibition. Tables in the centre.View from the outside of the display, Centre Court, Walmer Park.John (husband) at one of the entrances,& the big Nguni painting that sold on the last day.Another outer corner view. Walmer Park Exhibition Sep ’09Travelling home ! 7 Sep ’09
After the painting of the roses in the last blog-post, there was little time to paint much before the big framing operation. John framed 22 new paintings for the Exhibition. However I did manage a couple of quick paintings,.. (more…)
